Something Better Change

I've hit one of those spells where lethargy and fatigue override enthusiasm. Felt okay on Thursday, spent a bit of time identifying stuff on Friday morning, and then had pretty much two and a half days of laying around doing chuff all and sleeping a lot. I can tell myself it was the chemo, but that's probably only 50% true. Since the weekend, I've been a bit more focussed on work stuff and anyway the weather is still dreadful for April. Whilst we've had some lovely sunny days, in the shade or breeze it is still nippy and there is not as much going on as there should be for late April. As for the nights, clear, cold and mothless.

I'm running out of time to have lots of free time. I expect to be going back to work in a more formal capacity in a couple of weeks, assuming the chemo is halted as I expect. But to be honest I need that; being away from work may sound great, and I'm sure we all dream of having nothing but time to ourselves, but actually I need the structure that working properly gives. It means that time in the evening and weekends become more precious, and there is more impetuous to make hay when conditions are good etc. Being based at home all the time makes leaving something until later or tomorrow too easy. If I was retired things would be different I'm sure, but being off whilst recovering from surgery and doing some work from home in a fairly casual way wears thin.

The lack of activity since my sweeping session down the lane means I've not got a lot to feature photographically, but amongst the numerous square-listing ticks I picked up another three species I'd not seen before including this ....

Stenocranus minutus. The differences between the x3 British Stenocranus spp. are subtle, made slightly easier in VC55 given that S. fuscovittatus is Nationally local and mainly southerly. The two we certainly have, S. major and S. minutus, have differences in the tone and contrast of the longitudinal lines on the front of the face, and the front of the vertex protrudes more in S. minutus but that is very subjective. S. minutus can be slightly smaller too.

Here's the face of S. minutus showing pale brown lines (may even be absent on some individuals):

And here's the face of S. major that I've previously recorded, showing much more contrasty blackish lines (and note the dark tarsal segments which separate from S. fuscovittatus) :

I reckon S. minutus is generally darker than S. major, but I guess that's not sufficiently stable to be considered as a factor. Here are the same two side-on, see the massive difference in the projection of the vertex ....

I should add that both records accepted via iRecord national expertise.

What else is going on? Oh yes, apparently our Government is lead and populated by a shambling bunch of lying self-serving chancers. Who knew? If there is not some sort of Tory coup or at least change through resignations, I think we can fully wave goodbye to any semblance of democracy and scrutiny for decades. Even if BJ gets his comeuppance, we'll still have a shit Tory Government, but there is a chance that the slide to full blown authoritarianism might halt and the blinkered supporters of rank idiocy might wake up.